Book 1 Website Chapters 1-2

Neiman’s window, tug it down to my knees, secretly studying odd details in the
cockroaches. A giggle rises. The leader lunges. Time starts.
I whip left onto Ohio Street. The arctic tundra of Lake Michigan glistens a
perilous road. Irritated, I swat at the labial palps nipping my neck as the glass
lobby of the high-rise office building on the left bursts onto the street. Pompous
tetras and horrified snails rush out, muck and slime coating the street. I plummet,
screaming my slide into the tail fin of a giant rubber shark. I hold up my hand and
stop time again. Head cocked, I narrow in on the shark’s plate-size pearl
earrings and square heeled shoes, then down to my sodden, teacup Nike’s. The
shark bares its teeth. Time starts.
Heart pounding, I clamor to my feet, narrowly missing a fiendish roach’s clasp
as the spear-wielding rubber shark and the mob leader close in. Leaping over
Lakeshore Drive, I pump a victory fist to the air. But I’m sucked up, splat down
onto a vacant and roofless convenience store. I search wildly for an escape. My
ears perk at the Divine. I look up to the cloud speakers above. I’m Gonna Crawl
from In Through the Out Door. I fall to my knees and bolt awake.
Shielding my eyes, I reach for the lamp, open my journal and write
cockroaches and I’m Gonna Crawl, Lake Michigan. Jung might need a new book
for this one. I drop to my feet and dress for my run.
City lights speck a musty pre-dawn sky. I run down State Street, thinking and
counting. 1,2,1,2, life should be exuberantly joyful. 1,2, 1,2, we all are the
Chosen One, 1,2, 1,2. A delivery truck roars past. I crinkle my nose, force out
the fumes.
The Rules of Life by Melissa Abbott-Cooke. Contact: Melissa@therulesoflifebook.com 615-669-5643 6